Order of the Falcon for Professor Carolyne Larrington

Professor Larrington, who was in Iceland to attend the International Saga Conference, said she was ‘surprised and delighted’ by the award. The Order of the Falcon honours both Icelanders and citizens of other countries for achievements in Iceland or internationally.

Sworn in at the investiture at the President’s residence at Bessastaðir together with seven other distinguished scholars, Professor Larrington’s award is for services to Icelandic literature.

Her research interests span Old Icelandic literature, medieval women's writing, European Arthurian literature and emotion in medieval literature, particularly in European secular literature and in Old Norse. Her current project, Modern Fairies and Loathly Ladies, explores the storyworld of British folk-tales and folk-songs about fairies and the supernatural.

Professor Larrington's translation of the key collection of medieval mythological and heroic poems known as the Poetic Edda, of which the second edition appeared in 2014, is the standard, used by scholars across the world, and even by Viking metal-music specialists, such as the well-known Norwegian band Vardruna and her most recent popular book, on Old Norse myths and legends, appeared from Thames and Hudson in 2017. She is currently writing a second book on the TV show Game of Thrones, and is under contract to write a study of the reception of Old Norse myth in the modern era, also for Thames and Hudson.